As recognized herein, existing voice assistant modules in computing devices consume energy in large part because the microphone that serves as trigger to the voice assistant is in always on. For stationary plugged-in devices, power is not of operational concern, but for mobile devices it is. For this reason, mobile device voice assistant modules require a button press to energize the microphone/module. On the other hand, it can be handy to have voice assistants always ready for command input without the need for a button press.